Henrik Örnebring is Professor of Media and Communication at Karlstad University, Sweden, where he mainly researches the historical, institutional, and professional aspects of journalism. He is also the author of two science fiction novels and numerous role-playing game supplements. He is also an avid beer geek who regularly goes to beer festivals and always makes sure to plan some beer-related stops whenever he attends academic conferences.
What are your interests and hobbies outside academia?
I think I have almost every geeky hobby that exists! I play games – role-playing games, board games, card games, tabletop miniature games. The only type of games I really do not play are computer/video games, strangely enough. I am very into comics, and have been since I was a very young age. I love old pulp literature, cult films and TV, crime novels, science fiction and fantasy in all forms and across all media, and as noted I am a beer geek (and a whisky geek, and a consummate cocktail maker) as well. I also have a couple of ‘normal’ hobbies – I go to the gym four or five times a week and I also love cooking and attend cooking classes and cooking events.
When did you become a role-playing game writer in Sweden?
I’ve been playing role-playing games since I was about 13 and written material for my own and my friends’ use since then. Eventually, when I was in my mid-20s, I had acquired the network and the skill to offer my writing samples to some Swedish game publishers and get my stuff published commercially (though I use the word “commercially” in the loosest possible sense – I have never made anything more than pocket money from my games writing!). Most of the stuff I’ve written has been pretty small scale, but I won the ‘Role-Playing Campaign Supplement of the Year Award’ in 2005 for an RPG book I wrote with my friend Ola Janson (it was about life in post-apocalyptic Gothenburg).
How did you start to take an interest in beer tasting?
That interest goes back to my student days when a friend introduced me to beer other than mass-produced lager for the first time. I was amazed to find that beer could taste something other than beer, if you understand what I mean. I started doing beer reviews for the student newspaper and I’ve kept the interest since then!
Do beer tasting or your interest in role-playing games have any links to your academic work?
Ha ha, I really don’t know! You should ask my colleagues, who I always drag around town when we are attending conferences, looking for the best breweries/beer bars! I’ve never written about beer or role-playing games in an academic setting as I tend to think that would make my hobbies more like work and thus not as enjoyable. I have, however, pursued my interest in cult TV with a number of academic articles (in the International Journal of Cultural Studies, for example) about the TV series Alias. Look them up if you are interested!
How do these interests, if at all, help you as Professor?
Ha ha, again I don’t know! But I have noticed that my interests (which I would like to think are fairly wide-ranging) have given me a broad frame of reference and I can often relate to conference presentations and academic texts outside my own area of expertise (particularly in the field of popular culture), because I have some idea about the object of study or about geek culture in general. So my interests have certainly broadened my (academic) horizons, which I can only think of as a good thing!
What game would you recommend to other communication scholars?
I’ll go very obscure here: there is a not-very-well-known independent role-playing game from the mid-2000s called The Shab Al-Hiri Roach, which is set in the academic world and a very funny satire (in game form) on academia. I think the game’s own presentation best explains its potential appeal to academics: “The Shab-al-Hiri Roach is a dark comedy of manners, lampooning academia and asking players to answer a difficult question – are you willing to swallow a soul-eating telepathic insect bent on destroying human civilization? No? Even if it will get you tenure?”
How would you recommend people interested in learning about beer should start?
Come find me at a conference and come with me to a beer bar/brewery! There’s nothing like a personal introduction to get started in the world of beer!
Ana Jorge
Photo credits: Charlotte Örnebring
